Saturday 24 October 2009

Combat time!!!


The good news is my 2010 sails have arrived. The bad news is that the long wind drought on Fuerte continues. Still not a breath of wind, great for the surfers but frustrating as hell for us. The forecast is bleak with another 7 days of nada!

I did manage to get out last night at 6pm for a quick session on Lobos which was fun but certainly not epic, still, nice to get wet on something smaller than 200 litres for a change.

Can´t wait to test out the new sails, they look amazing and, by all accounts, are. They are very light but look superbly strong with tons of reinforcing in the critical zones so should last great (forever if the wind stays like this).

Monday 19 October 2009

Finished it at last...............

Yeeha, I finally finished editing the headcam movie and here it is. We shot the footage over two weeks at the beginning of August when my good friend Oisin was over. The original plan was to make a joint video but we really have been too busy (me windsurfing and him stuck in a boat/windsurfing!), so we split the honours and Oisin is busy working away on his as we speak. The footage was mainly shot in Punta with 5m sails and head-high waves, with a few days on flat water and 4.5s in Sotavento (while all the local waveheads were waiting in total calm for wind in the north! That´s 15 years of local knowledge, haha), great stuff. All in all, superb fun shooting the footage and, as always, supermotivating and inspiring to spend two weeks sailing with the Irish legend, Oisin. Also, educational as I never realised the full variety of facial expressions I pulled while sailing. Enjoy...................

Headcam action, August 2009. from Stephen Gibson on Vimeo.

Sunday 18 October 2009

The Isle Of Tranquility.



It´s been a while since I posted anything, mainly because there has been zero wind now for 5 weeks or so! In that time, I have sailed 2 half-hour sessions at Punta and that´s it. Thankfully, I´ve been superbusy with windsurf classes and clinics and have been sailing, albeit in light winds, almost every day so at least I´m getting out there. I have been messing around on the big boards trying to learn some new lightwind freestyle tricks (inspired by young Stefan and Tuempelsurfer!) and have had some great fun days spinning and falling in, haha. I´ve even got the dog into it- Daisy loves a spin round the lagoons now.....Sometimes it´s good to remind ourselves that it´s all supposed to be pure fun and sailing in a pair of shorts in the blazing sun on a longboard with some friends is still windsurfing and really can be great fun. I will do some video soon (if the wind doesn´t pick up!) so you can have a laugh................I also have just finished editing my "summer" video, the helmet cam movie which should be on here by tomorrow or Tuesday so check it out!!!!!



Welcome to the site!
Aswell as regular features and news updates from Fuerte, I am going to be using this site to promote my windsurfing clinics.
After 15 years on the island,having competed in the PWA freestyle world cup and now representing Fanatic Boards and North Sails, I have decided to give something back to the sport which has given me so much over the years.
My aim is to provide clinics "tailor-made"for each individual, with a strong emphasis on practical in-the-water instruction, backed up by on-the-beach tuition and video analysis. The consistent conditions here in Fuerte make learning so much easier and, perhaps equally important, more fun than the typically inconsistent, cold UK - why not come over for a week and improve your windsurfing by a year!!!

I can help with any manoeuvres from carve-gybe through to advanced jumping and freestyle, just email me with your wish list and we'll take it from there! Over the next few months, I am going to be video-chronicling manoeuvres which you can check out on the right in my tricktionary sections. This will give you some idea of the things we can work on, or, if you can't make it over here, you may find them useful to help understand and break down a manoeuvre you would like to learn (hopefully, the slow-mo will help in this respect!).Just click on the trick and scroll down..........
Anyway, keep checking it out as I have loads more in my bag of tricks and will be updating as and when I get the footage.
If you're interested, e-mail me on gibboinfuerte@yahoo.co.uk
See ya in Fuerte?
Stephen.............